JP2501913B2 - Auto cylinder-Box - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an auto cylinder box that stores a cylinder filled with a material gas used for manufacturing semiconductors and sends the material gas to a manufacturing apparatus. It is a thing.

[Conventional technology]

In general, a cylinder filled with a material gas used for manufacturing semiconductors is stored in a box whose front surface is formed in a door, and the cylinder is connected to the box through a plurality of valves provided in the box. The material gas inside is sent to the manufacturing apparatus by the pipe extended to the outside. The supply of the material gas to the manufacturing apparatus is performed by a worker manually opening and closing the plurality of valves or performing a part of the work by an automatic operation.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

However, in the work of supplying the material gas as described above, it is necessary to frequently open and close the valve, and if this is done manually, the work becomes complicated. In particular, when operating a plurality of cylinders filled with different kinds of material gas, there is a problem that the above-mentioned work becomes very complicated and an operation error easily occurs. On the other hand, even when a part of the work is performed automatically, the operations that can be performed automatically are limited to the container replacement operation, the gas supply operation, the stop operation, etc., and other complicated operations must be performed manually. There's a problem.
In addition, many of the gases used for manufacturing semiconductors as described above are toxic, and operational mistakes due to operations such as opening and closing valves are only from the aspect of productivity, which reduces production efficiency and quality. In addition, it is unacceptable in terms of safety. Further, there is a problem that the above operation is dangerous and must be performed by an operator having special knowledge.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances,
The purpose is to provide an automatic cylinder box that is easy to operate and does not cause erroneous operations.

[Means for solving the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the auto cylinder box of the present invention stores a cylinder filled with a material gas,
This is an auto cylinder box that supplies material gas to the manufacturing equipment through a pipe extended from this cylinder. It is a series of cylinder replacement, residual pressure release, nitrogen replacement, airtight test, vacuum exhaust, gas supply / stop, etc. A storage means for storing operation data, a display device for displaying the operation data sequentially on a screen provided with a touch key by a question method, and sending the instruction data by operating the touch key, and the display device. Equipped with operating means for operating the device such as the valve provided in the pipe according to the instruction data sent from the device, the operation data of the cylinder replacement stored in the storage device is the data after the installation / removal of the cylinder and the installation of the cylinder. Introduction of gas for gas-tightness test into pipes, checking whether the cylinder is installed properly by checking for gas leaks. And a configuration that includes the operation data of the discharge of the airtight test gas from the pipe.

[Action]

That is, the auto cylinder box of the present invention is
Unlike the conventional example, the worker does not manually supply the material gas to the manufacturing apparatus while opening and closing the valve, but a series of operation data necessary for gas supply is stored in advance in the storage procedure. Is input and stored, and this is sequentially displayed on the screen of the display device by a question method, and by pressing the touch key in the part of the answer to the question on the screen display, the material gas is produced under arbitrary conditions. The device can be automatically supplied. Therefore, the operation is extremely easy as it only requires pressing the touch key of the display device. In addition, since a series of operations can be performed while watching the screen display, even if an operator who does not have specialized knowledge performs the operation, he or she will not make an incorrect operation, and there will be no variation in the operation due to individual differences of the operator. . As a result, the work becomes safe and productivity is improved and stabilized. Further, according to the present invention, the cylinder replacement and the airtightness test at the time of this cylinder replacement can be easily performed by pressing the touch key.

Next, the present invention will be described in detail based on examples.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention. That is, in the figure, 1 is a double door open at the front (door is not shown)
The inside is a storage box, which is partitioned into left and right by a partition plate 2 provided at one end side, and one end side portion of the inside is vertically partitioned by a partition plate 3. The cylinders 4, 5 and 6 are stored in parallel in the other end portion of the storage box 1, and the control device (not visible in the figure) is on the lower side and the control is on the upper side on the one end side. Display devices 7 connected to the devices by wires are stored respectively. The cylinders 4 and 5 are filled with a monosilane gas used for manufacturing a semiconductor, and the cylinder 6 is filled with a helium gas for an airtight test, and a storage box is provided through a pipe as shown in FIG. Manufacturing device provided outside 1 (connected to the tip of the pipe a)
To be sent to. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 8 denotes a pipe extending from the top of the cylinder 4, and the tip side of the pipe communicates with a nitrogen supply device (which is connected to the rear end of the pipe b) provided outside the storage box 1. Supply pipe 9,
It branches into a material gas transfer pipe 10 communicating with the manufacturing apparatus. The nitrogen supply pipe 9 is provided with pneumatic valves 11, 12 and a flexible pipe portion 13, and the material gas transfer pipe 10 is provided with a flexible pipe portion 14,
A filter 15, pressure sensors 16 and 17, pneumatic valves 18 and 19, and a dome type pressure reducing valve 20 are provided, respectively. Pressure indicating alarm types 21 and 22 are connected to the pressure sensors 16 and 17, respectively. Further, from the material gas transfer pipe 10,
Vacuum piping with pneumatic valve 23 and pressure sensor 24
25 and exhaust pipe 27 with pneumatic valve 26 with orifice
Is branched and extends to the outside, and when the inside of the pipes 8 and 10 is to be evacuated, the inside of the pipes 8 and 10 can be brought to a vacuum state by suctioning through the high pressure side vacuum piping 25. Piping 8,10
When the residual gas inside is released to the outside, the residual gas can be released to the outside through the exhaust pipe 27. 28 is a pressure indicating alarm gauge connected to the pressure sensor 24, 29 is a low pressure side vacuum piping connecting the pipes 10 and 25, and 3
Reference numeral 0 is a pneumatic valve provided in the pipe 29. Also, a pipe 8a similar to the pipe 8 is extended from the top of the cylinder 5, and a nitrogen supply pipe 9a communicating with a nitrogen supply device is provided at the tip side thereof.
Pipes such as the material gas transfer pipe 10a communicating with the manufacturing apparatus are
It has the same structure as the pipe 8 extending from the cylinder 4. Then, devices such as the pneumatic valve 11a are provided in each part of each of these pipes in the same manner as the pneumatic valve 11 and the like provided in the pipe 8 (however, the pressure sensor 24).
And the one corresponding to the pressure indicating alarm 28 is not provided). Therefore, the pipe 8a extending from the illustrated cylinder 5
The respective devices provided in the same or the like are represented by the reference symbols of the respective devices provided in the pipe 8 extending from the cylinder 4 and the like with a added. Reference numeral 31 denotes a pipe extending from the nitrogen supply device to the top of the cylinder 6, and a pipe 32 communicating from the pipe 31 to the exhaust pipes 27 and 27a and a pipe communicating to the upstream side of the nitrogen supply pipes 9 and 9a.
33 is branched. The pipe 31 includes a flexible pipe portion 34, a filter 35, a pressure sensor 36, pneumatic valves 37 and 38, and a diaphragm valve 39.
The pressure sensor 36 is provided with a pressure indicating alarm 40.
However, a nozzle gun 41 is connected to each diaphragm valve 39. Further, the pipe 32 is provided with a flow meter 42 and a check valve 43, and the pipe 33 is provided with a pressure sensor 45 connected to a pressure indicating alarm meter 44. Reference numeral 46 denotes an air supply pipe with a pressure switch 47 extending from the air supply device (which is connected to the rear end of the pipe c) provided outside to the inside of the storage box 1. It branches into 46b and 46c. An instrumentation pressure reducing valve 48a and a three-way solenoid valve 49a are provided on the pipe 46a, an instrumentation pressure reducing valve 48b and a three-way solenoid valve 49b are provided on the pipe 46b, and a manifold three-way solenoid valve 50 is provided on the pipe 46c. The three-way solenoid valves 49a and 49b are dome type pressure reducing valves provided in the material gas transfer pipes 10 and 10a, respectively.
The dome-shaped pressure reducing valve 20, 20a is opened and closed by the pressure of air sent to the pipes 46a, 46b, and the manifold three-way solenoid valve 50 is connected to each pneumatic valve. Each pneumatic valve is opened and closed by the pressure of the air sent to the pipe 46c. Also, 51 and 52 are valve shutters provided on the tops of the cylinders 4 and 5,
Reference numeral 3 is a cabinet exhaust valve provided on the ceiling of the storage box 1. The valve shutters 51, 52 can be opened automatically or manually at the start of work, and the closing is performed by automatic control by a control device. In the storage unit of the control device, data that completely covers a series of operations such as opening and closing of valves necessary to send the monosilane gas in the cylinder 4 or the cylinder 5 to the manufacturing device is input, and this is the question. And the alternative answers to the questions are sequentially displayed on the screen of the display device 7. Then, when you press your finger on the part of one answer to the question displayed on this screen, the operating part of the control device operates the valve communication device according to that answer, and the monosilane gas is supplied under the conditions as instructed. It is being sent to the manufacturing equipment. In this case, with regard to a question in which a wrong operation is dangerous, the same question is repeated twice (the second time becomes a more specific question) and displayed on the screen, so that the wrong operation is eliminated. .

In this structure, the operation is performed according to the flow chart shown in FIG. First, the switches of the control device and the display device 7 are turned on. As a result, the title screen first appears on the screen of the display device 7,
When you press the screen, container pattern setting, gas name registration, valve shutter, pressure reducing valve, weighing scale setting,
Questions about the setting of the purge method, the setting of automatic switching and automatic stop, the setting of the timer, the setting of PIA and WIA, the test mode, etc. are displayed in sequence. Therefore, while looking at this screen, by pushing the part where the answer of the screen is displayed, the initial setting can be performed under arbitrary conditions. Then, check that the cylinders 4, 5 and 6 are attached, and check if the attachment is normal (leakage) by airtight test. This air tightness test is performed after the helium gas in the cylinder 6 is sent to the cylinders 4 and 5 side through the pipes 31 and 33 and the nitrogen supply pipes 9 and 9a with the valve shutters 51 and 52 of the cylinders 4 and 5 closed. Valve is closed, enclosed in a closed circuit containing the cylinder 4 or cylinder 5, left for a certain period of time (time can be set arbitrarily), and pressure fluctuation during that period is set to a preset reference value. It is done by contrasting with. in this case,
The presence / absence of leakage is determined by the automatic calculation determination of the control device. If there is no normal as a result of the airtight test, a predetermined valve is opened, nitrogen gas is sent from the nitrogen supply device into the circuit through the pipe 33, and the helium gas and the nitrogen gas in the circuit are exhausted from the exhaust pipes 27 and 27a. Is discharged to the outside. Then, by using a suction means, the residual gas in the circuit is sucked to the vacuum piping 25, 25a side to bring the inside of the circuit into a vacuum state. In that state, the display device 7
Choose to use sequences that appear on the screen (although monosilane gas to any gas cylinder 4,5 is the same also choose either because it is filled, in this case, and selects the gas cylinder 4), the The screen changes to the line select display. Therefore, either stop or supply is selected. If you select supply, the operating data input to the controller
The operation proceeds as shown in the flowchart of FIG. That is, if the emergency stop is on, the reset button is turned on to return to the line select position. If the emergency stop is not on, the start button is turned on to open the valve shutter 51 and open the cylinder 4. The monosilane gas is sent to the manufacturing device through the fuel gas transfer devices 10 and a, where it is used for manufacturing semiconductors. At this time, depending on the setting of the timer, the supply of monosilane gas proceeds at the correct time, and the pressure indicator alarms 21, 22, 28, 2
Whether or not the pressures of the pressure switches 1a, 22a, 42 and the pressure switch 47 are in an appropriate state is constantly compared with the reference value. In this case, the screen of the display device 7 displays the fifth
A diagram as shown in the figure is displayed so that the pressure of the line and the pressure indicating alarm meter being supplied or stopped can be seen at a glance. Then, for example, when the amount of gas remaining in the cylinder 4 decreases and the value of the pressure indicating alarm gauge 21 becomes equal to or less than the reference value, automatic switching is performed, and the container is automatically replaced from the cylinder 4 to the cylinder 5. The monosilane gas in the cylinder 5 is supplied to the manufacturing apparatus again. When the pressure in the material gas transfer pipes 10 and 10a, the pressure in the pipes 33 and the nitrogen supply pipes 9 and 9a, and the pressure in the vacuum drawing pipes 25 and 25a rise above the respective reference values, the pressure indicator alarms 22 and 22a , Pressure indicator 4
4. When the indicated value of the pressure indicator / alarm 28 exceeds the reference value, an alarm sounds. Further, when the pressure of the pressure switch 47 becomes equal to or lower than the reference value, it becomes difficult for each pneumatic valve to operate, and an alarm due to an abnormal instrumentation pressure occurs. Therefore, these alarms allow appropriate measures (corresponding to the countermeasure message displayed on the screen). As described above, the supply of the appropriate monosilane gas is connected in a monitored state by the pressure-feeding instruction alarm meter or the like, and the supply of the monosilane gas is stopped when the stop-on is turned on after a certain period of time. Further, in the flow chart shown in FIG. 3, when stop is selected, the display of the display device 7 shows maintenance, whole purge, container (cylinder) replacement, partial purge, and airtight test. Therefore, the operation can be performed by selecting one of the above items and pressing the portion of the screen on which it is displayed. In other words, if maintenance is selected, parts replacement, airtightness test, purge of residual gas, evacuation, etc. are performed in sequence, if the overall purge is selected, the operation of purging residual gas and evacuation is performed, and if container exchange is selected, the container is replaced. Operations such as desorption, airtightness test, purge of residual gas,
If the partial purge is selected, the gas purge operation is performed, and if the airtight test is selected, the airtight test operation is performed along the flow chart. In this operation, purging is
It is carried out by repeatedly filling and releasing nitrogen gas in a predetermined sealed circuit.
It is performed in the same manner as the method described above. Also, during the above operation, the only operation performed by the worker is pressing the touch key such as start-on or supply-on, except for attaching / detaching the cylinders 4, 5 and 6 and replacing the parts, and the work is automatically controlled by the controller. It is carried out by. Furthermore, for a question in which an incorrect instruction is dangerous, the same question is displayed twice on the screen (however, the second question becomes a more specific question) so that an incorrect instruction does not occur. Therefore, no accident will occur unless incorrect instructions are repeated twice. Further, when an abnormality is found during the operation, the work is stopped by the automatic control of the control device.

As described above, the auto cylinder box of the present invention causes the series of operation data input to the control device to be sequentially displayed on the screen of the display device 7, and the touch key is pressed while observing the display, whereby the material gas Can be supplied to the manufacturing equipment. Therefore, the operation becomes extremely easy and erroneous operation is eliminated. As a result, productivity is improved and work is safe. Further, unlike the conventional case, the operator does not open and close the valve by hand, so that there is no individual difference and it is possible to always supply a constant gas.
Even if the worker does not have special knowledge, the operation can be easily performed.

In addition, in the above-mentioned embodiment, two cylinders 4 and 5 are used, and both the cylinders 4 and 5 are filled with monosilane gas. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a plurality of cylinders 2 or more is used. They may be used, and these cylinders may be filled with different gases, or some cylinders may be filled with different gases, and various combinations can be made. Further, the gas can be supplied to the manufacturing apparatus not only from one cylinder but also from a plurality of cylinders at the same time.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, since the auto cylinder box of the present invention is configured, the operation can be performed simply by pressing the touch key of the display device, and it is extremely easy.
Since a series of operations can be performed while watching the screen display, erroneous operations are eliminated and productivity is improved. As a result, it becomes possible to safely manufacture high quality semiconductors. Further, according to the present invention, the cylinder replacement and the airtightness test at the time of this cylinder replacement can be easily performed by pressing the touch key.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram thereof, FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing an operation flow using the same, and FIG. 4 is a gas supply operation flow. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the gas supply state displayed on the screen of the display device. 1 ... Storage box, 4,5,6 cylinder, 7 ... Display device, 8,8a ... Piping 8a, 10, 10a ... Material gas transfer piping

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An automatic cylinder box for storing a cylinder filled with a material gas and supplying the material gas to a manufacturing apparatus through a pipe extending from the cylinder, the cylinder exchange, residual pressure release, and nitrogen substitution. , A storage means for storing a series of operation data such as an airtight test, vacuum exhaust, gas supply / stop, and the like, by sequentially displaying the operation data on a screen provided with a touch key by a question method and operating the touch key. , A display device for sending out the instruction data, and an operating means for operating a device such as a valve provided in the pipe according to the instruction data sent from the display device, and a cylinder exchange stored in the storage device. The operation data shows that the cylinder is installed / removed, the gas for airtightness test is introduced into the pipe after the cylinder is installed, and the cylinder is installed properly. Auto cylinder okamotoi box that whether characterized in that it comprises the operation data of the discharge of the airtight test gas from the airtight test and piping examine the presence or absence of gas leakage.